Long-term advantages may not endure after early tight control in psoriatic arthritis

Patients with psoriatic arthritis who participated in a tight control program for 48 weeks showed no clinical advantage over patients who received usual care when reviewed again 5 years after having gone back to standard rheumatology care outside of the study, based on data from 110 patients in the TIght COntrol of inflammation in early Psoriatic Arthritis (TICOPA) study.

Dr. Laura C. Coates

In the original study, significantly more adults with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) who were randomized to a tight control, treat-to-target group achieved minimal disease activity criteria after 48 weeks, compared with a standard care group (40% vs. 25%).

“Following exit from this study, we hypothesized that this advantage would translate to a clinical advantage in the medium term,” wrote Laura C. Coates, MBChB, PhD, of the University of Oxford (England) and colleagues.

In a study published in Rheumatology, the researchers examined data from 54 patients in the tight control arm of TICOPA and 56 patients in the standard care arm.

At 5 years after the completion of the TICOPA study, 69% of patients in the tight control group and 76% of patients in the standard care group were considered to be in low disease activity. In addition, methotrexate use after 5 years was similar between the tight control and standard care groups (44% and 54%, respectively) and both groups had reduced methotrexate use since the study’s end.

Overall use of biologic drugs was similar between the tight control and standard care groups after 5 years (54% and 52%, respectively), although overall use of biologics was higher in the tight control group at the end of the original study, compared with the standard care group (33% vs. 9%).

Related

BSR: Multiple benefits seen with intensive psoriatic arthritis therapy The findings were limited by several factors, notably the lack of intention to continue treatment or observations beyond the end of the original TICOPA study, and the patients’ status at 5 years was based on routine clinician notes with no formal assessment of minimal disease activity or objective measure of disease status, the researchers noted.

However, “this result reflects clinical practice in routine rheumatology care,” and any benefit of early tight control on later disease activity could not be determined, they added.

The current study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research infrastructure at Leeds and Oxford (England). The original TICOPA study was funded by Arthritis Research UK (now called Versus Arthritis) and Pfizer. Some of the investigators disclosed financial relationships with companies that market drugs for PsA.